Redistricting Board Back on Track

I likened the board yesterday to a graduate student having a meltdown late into a major semester long project.  And today, like such a student,  the board seems to have gotten their frustrations out of their system, gotten a good night’s sleep, and this morning were proceeding with renewed energy and professionalism. They began with timelines for the Board to finish.

1.  Board start work - 3-26
2.  Board Drafts Constittuional Plan   2-27
3.  Plan reviewed by VRA expert - 3-28
4.  Board Adopts Amended plan - 3-30
5.  Board Adopts proclamation - 3-31
6.  Board Submit plan to Court - 4-04


New Love for 3rd Party Plans and The Bethel-Matsu Senate Pairing

The third party plans that were disparaged yesterday were cited today as giving the board possible new options.  Chair Torgerson said that the AFFR’s and (with prompting from executive director Bickford) the Rights Coalition’s pairing of Bethel and Matsu House Districts to get the third Native Senate district looked promising and that he’d instructed staff to see if they could adjust the plans they are working on to achieve that. [I put up a video of AFFR Rep Joe McKinnon talking about this plan in the previous post.  I couldn't figure out the third Senate pairing.  It turns out to be the Bethel-Matsu pairing.]

AFFR Plan

Working On Two Plan Strategy

The Board is now working on two plans to move forward.  One is their new plan that has gone through the Hickel Process mandated by the Supreme Court.  But there have been concerns about whether they can pull off a plan that will get both DOJ approval and Supreme Court approval soon enough for the 2012 election deadlines. 

So, they are also planning to submit a copy of the original Proclamation plan with the two Fairbanks districts that were ruled unconstitutional (HD 1 and 2) cleaned up.  The Supreme Court has given the Board the option of using the Proclamation plan as a fallback for the 2012 election if they can’t get a new plan created and approved in time for the election.  This would allow them to have a fallback in case the new plan doesn’t get approved in time.

Break Until 2pm



The board recessed until 2pm to give the staff time to work on the plan that would pair the Bethel and Matsu districts.  Chair Torgerson also asked them to look at pairing Bethel and Anchorage, though taking precincts like Kincaid or Inlet View as they talked about yesterday seems particularly bizarre to me and others who were watching.